Welcome back to the Closer Report. There’s finally a little bit of action happening on the Closer Carousel, which you can see in a semi-active Closer Grid. As always, the changes since last week’s posting are in yellow.

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We’re one week into the season and, unsurprisingly, not a whole lot has happened in the world of closers. There have been a few changes, but most of the news has been more speculative than concrete. Here is the up-to-date closer grid, with the changes made since last week’s publishing highlighted in yellow.

The fantasy season is officially back, and that means it’s also time for the return of everyone’s favorite part of fantasy baseball: the closer carousel. If you were here for The Closer Report, it’s mostly staying the same this year. I’ll tackle a few of the week’s biggest stories, and finish up with a few quick hits I find interesting. One change I’m implementing is sharing my closer grid, which I’ll be updating on something close to a daily basis. I’ll share it every week, but you can check up on it whenever you’d like and I’ll highlight any recent changes I’ve made. One quick note: The Watchlist isn’t necessarily the next man in line, but rather someone to keep an eye on as the season progresses. Now, let’s get on with the show.

Stacking up the bullpenners based on their values through the end of the 2018 season.

J.J. Jansons and I are taking turns doing the three-year rankings, and we’ve arrived at the last installment, relief pitchers. In case you missed any of the previous positions, you have some catching up to do:

A look at where closers and setup men have been selected in drafts held to date.

Welcome to the final installment of our new fantasy series focused primarily on analyzing early average draft position (ADP) trends. The goal of the series is to identify trends in the data to improve our draft-day strategy going forward. The early ADP data referenced for this entire series, housed at STATS.com, is from 2016 National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) leagues, which are comprised of 15 teams. Therefore, the average round data is reflective of that league size.

Is the Indians or the Astros ninth-inning man a better bet to anchor your fantasy relief corps?

One of the most difficult decisions in any draft or auction is to decide how hard to push for a closer. Do you try to push for one of the top-tier guys, or wait and hope you can find value with a late-round or low-dollar player. Personally, I try to find my top closer towards the bottom of the top 10, splitting the difference between the two strategies. That is where both of today’s subjects find themselves. We’ll be looking at two former top prospects—or, as much of a top prospect as a reliever can be—who have lived up to their promise for the early parts of their careers. It’s Cody Allen vs. Ken Giles.

All you need to know about the senior circuit's high-leverage bullpen arms.

I wrote this article thinking that deep-league NL-only roto players already know who is closing for each team. I will mention the closer for each team as a reference, but I’ll spend more time talking about the non-closers in each bullpen.

Eyeing a handful of teams whose ninth-inning roles might be up for grabs.

“Super bullpens” have become a league-wide trend, especially among contending teams. The Boston Red Sox shipped a pair of top-100 prospects, and then some, to San Diego for Craig Kimbrel. They went on to add the Mariners’ 2015 closer, Carson Smith, to perhaps be their seventh-inning guy. The New York Yankees proved that talent and winning always matter more than morality when they traded for Aroldis Chapman, who conceivably could miss the entirety of the 2016 season due to abuse allegations. Finally, the Houston Astros traded a massive package of prospects to Philly in return for the young, fireballing reliever Ken Giles.

How Wade Davis and Jeurys Familia went from failed starters to dominant closers...

Fantasy owners', particularly keeper and dynasty owners', aversion to investing heavily in closers has been well documented and is certainly warranted. The risks often outweigh the rewards when you consider the relative instability of the position overall. Due to a toxic combination of injuries and ineffectiveness, there is more turnover on a yearly basis among closers than among player at any other position. As a result, elite fantasy stoppers have a tendency to emerge out of nowhere, as was the case with both Wade Davis and Jeurys Familia this year.

A pair of premier setup men a year ago, their performance once they ascended into their respective teams' closing roles made them two of the best values in fantasy baseball this season. According to the end-of-season valuations compiled by my Baseball Prospectus colleague Mike Gianella (who won both Tout Wars NL and LABR Mixed with Bret Sayre this year), only Andrew Miller ($23) earned more than Davis ($22) in the AL, while Familia ($23) finished behind Mark Melancon ($25) in the NL this season.

The fantasy year is just about over, and hopefully you’ve won or are on your way to winning your league. If not, hopefully you didn’t lose because of something I said. It’s been a typically frustrating season in the world of closers, and to end the year I figured I’d hand out completely subjective awards that were chosen by a panel of one.